July 27, 2014

A morning mountain bike ride. The kids did amazingly well!

Straight from the lake into the van for the drive home. Dusty and dry-skinned we hit the road, eating pb&j sandwiches, celery sticks and blueberries. Then the tears began to flow. It’s always so hard for Natalie to say goodbye to fun times. With each mile of distance between us and Shaver Lake, her heart grew heavier and heavier. All the fun of a week of camping and lake play with fun friends had come to an end.

Writing down the highlights of the trip, to add to our camp folder.

The van piled high with stuff. Dirty stuff. Dusty stuff. Stuff we would spend all day unpacking, cleaning, putting away. Bamboo sticks, stuffed animals, books, bags of snacks, blankets, towels, camera bag…and so much more.

A stop at Sonic in Kingsburg….corn dogs, a cherry slush, a vanilla shake, a banana cream pie shake…

Mama reading aloud several chapters of Caddie Woodlawn…the kids totally into the book, visualizing the setting and story as it unfolds….asking questions along the way “what does that mean?”….daddy smiling as he heard Mama read with different voices for each character

Charlie- exhausted beyond exhausted. Did we forget him? My word he’s so quiet on the back bench. Not a peep out of him. Not a stir. A week of swimming in the lake wore him out.

The alphabet game….Jacob stuck on finding the letter “J”…he missed the sight of a Jack-in-the-Box and needed to wait miles upon miles upon miles for sight of another exit with food stops. He was going crazy that he couldn’t find a “J” in Kern County. Natalie won the game!!! With her “Z” find going up the GrapeVine on a license plate of a passing car.

Pillow fights….4 pillows flying between Jacob & Natalie….crazy, insane, hysterical laughter

Making up songs to the tune of “Let it Go” from the Frozen movie. Songs all about pee and poop. The kids had hit the point of delirium. Steve and I sitting in the front trying to hold back our smiles. We had been in the car for 6 hours at that point, with the interchange of the 5 to the 405 reducing all the way down to 1 lane and a verrrrrrrry slow crawl for construction. We let them just entertain themselves, and us really too.